How to manage data usage on your phone plan.

Most smartphones also have in-built data monitors to provide details of your data usage - you can usually find these within the settings of your smartphone.

How much data will you need?

As an estimate, here’s a guide describing how much data you’ll need each month for various online activities. These estimates are based on typical sizes and are subject to change - your usage may vary but in general we estimate streaming videos/movies in standard definition at 0.7GB per hour, streaming music at 128MB per hour and app downloads at 1GB per item – all on the Vodafone 3G and 4G mobile network. As apps become more sophisticated and cameras create higher resolution images and video, it’s likely that your data consumption will increase.

30 mins/day

60 mins/day

90 mins/day

120 mins/day

150 mins/day

180 mins/day

Streaming videos/movies (SD)

14GB

27GB

41GB

54GB

68GB

81GB

Streaming music/podcasts/radio

1GB

3GB

4GB

5GB

7GB

8GB

Video calls & messaging

4GB

7GB

11GB

14GB

18GB

22GB

Browsing – websites and email

1GB

3GB

4GB

5GB

7GB

8GB

Social – social media browsing and sharing

5GB

11GB

16GB

22GB

27GB

32GB

Tips for limiting your data usage.

Here are some other ways you can limit your data usage.

Connect to WiFi.

When you’re connected to a WiFi network, you won’t use your plan’s mobile data.

Do downloads and uploads count towards my data usage?

How much data does tethering / using a hotspot use?

Tethering is using your mobile phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot to provide an internet signal for another device (such as a tablet or laptop.) The amount of data you use will depend on what you're using the tablet or laptop for. For example, streaming a movie on your tablet while tethered to your phone will use a similar amount of mobile data as streaming the movie direct to your phone.

What if I use data for something that’s not included in the chart above?

If you can't find what you're looking for in our data chart, it's probably because it doesn't use a significant amount of data. Using Siri, or Google assistant, for example uses very little data.

Using Google maps or Maps uses very little too. This is because once you've input the journey, your phone downloads the map you need and 'caches' the information.